Kenan Akbiram, a faculty member in the Department of Architecture at Bingol University, said that the causes of the great damage in the earthquake in southern Turkey and northern Syria are diverse.

The engineer explained, on Saturday, to the evening program on Al-Jazeera Mubasher that the first of these reasons is the region’s exposure to two strong earthquakes and aftershocks on the same day and beyond.

The specialist said that the energy released by the earth was great, explaining that the research teams are still searching for the cause of this crack in the ground, which left all this destruction.

The double earthquake of February 6, which was followed by 5,700 aftershocks, destroyed more than 75,000 buildings, while the Turkish government seeks to return the affected people to their homes as soon as possible.

Search and rescue work will end by Sunday in Turkey, after the earthquake that hit the south of the country on February 6 (Reuters)

The properties of the land also caused destruction, according to the architect, as in some areas it was soft, and even the strong and good buildings did not stand.

In other cases, the reason was the quality of the materials used in the construction, and Akbiram said that some areas were close to the epicenter of the earthquake, so the destruction was great.

Regarding the building of the Engineering Authority in Kahramanmaraş, which remained steadfast while the buildings around it were destroyed as a result of the earthquake, the engineer said that the builders of the building searched for a suitable floor before anything and used materials that match it, taking into account all the required standards.

Akbiram explained that observing the engineering rules in the rest of the buildings could have avoided Turkey from this disaster, and it would not have been affected by this scale.

The specialist said that the concerned authorities are intensifying their efforts to take strict measures in the reconstruction of the governorates affected by the earthquake and in others, and before that, making sure that the ground is suitable.

Witness: the most prominent features of the devastation left by the #Turkey_earthquake in the city of Kahramanmaraş and the areas surrounding the epicenter pic.twitter.com/xXVEgsbV2c

- Al Jazeera Mubasher (@ajmubasher) February 18, 2023

And the head of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD), Yunus Sezer, announced that the number of deaths from the earthquake in the south of the country had risen to 40,642 people.

He said on Saturday that the search and rescue work would be largely finished by Sunday evening.

He explained that cash assistance worth 10,000 pounds ($533) was granted to more than 682,000 citizens, noting that cash assistance is still being provided to citizens.

The Turkish government said it had evacuated more than 216,000 people affected by the stricken homes.

The Turkish Earthquake Research Institute continues to record new aftershocks in the southern states.


In the Turkish state of Malatya, 40% of the infrastructure for the city of “prefabricated” homes for the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck the south of the country has been completed.

AFAD teams are continuing to build the city on a total area of ​​190,000 square metres.

A total of 2,100 homes will be erected in the city, each measuring 21 square metres, and equipped with basic facilities such as toilet, bathroom and heating.

The teams began installing houses in the places where the infrastructure works were completed, and it is expected that 10,500 people will be housed in the city after the completion of the works as soon as possible.